Monday, May 31, 2010

It is hard for me to believe I no longer have a child in high school - where did the years go? My baby - Christine - graduated this past Friday night, with High Honors. To say we are proud of her would be an understatement.

Christine will now have the summer off before packing up to head to Berea College this fall. In case you've forgotten, Christine was awarded a full four-year academic scholarship to Berea. I'm trying very hard not to think about her leaving us, but I am going to miss her so much.

On the grandbaby front - my first grandchild is due any day now. My middle daughter - Marie - has been having some irregular contractions, so I'm hopeful it will be very soon, for her sake. Her due date is June 6th.

At this point in my life, I am still grieving the loss of my mother last week, so my blog posts may be very spotty for the next few weeks/months. In case I don't post again soon, I hope everyone has a fun, healthy, happy summer.

Monday, May 24, 2010

... I'm sorry for being so out of touch, but I have some bad news to pass on to all my bloggy friends.

My mom passed away Sunday evening about 6pm. She was only 65 yo, but she had been in poor health for at least the past 6 months. We tried a few things in CCU to try and wake up her kidneys and other organs back up, but when we realized they weren't working, daddy made the decision - the right decision and mom's wishes - to turn all the machines off. She was in no pain and thankfully went peacefully.

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up, they ... "Walked twenty-five miles to school every morning...Uphill...Barefoot... BOTH ways yadda, yadda, yadda ..."

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in h**l I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty (I'm actually well past 45!), I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a freaking Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to spank us as well! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! (I'm not advocating shoplifting here.)

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and screw it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

There weren't any freaking cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a dang call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD!!! Think of the horror...not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, the collection agent...you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen...Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

And our parents told us to stay outside and play...all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside...you were doing chores!

And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place! See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

About Me

I am a married mother of 3 grown daughters and I have 2 granddaughters and 1 grandson. I currently have a gardening column in the Sunday's Advocate Messenger and I freelance for Kentucky Monthly magazine and Examiner.com.